During Super Bowl LIII, you’ll see a female football player on your TV

WestonBlasi

A previous version of this story gave an incorrect name for Toyota marketing executive Ed Laukes. The story has been corrected.

Toyota

Toni Harris, a 22-year-old sophomore free safety at East Los Angeles College, will be featured in Toyota's RAV4 ad during the Super Bowl.

Viewers of Sunday’s Super Bowl LIII are going to see some amazing things.

We’ll see Tom Brady appearing in his ninth Super Bowl, and a match-up of the NFL’s best two coaches.

Also? A female football player who may play in the NFL one day. Her name is Antoinette “Toni” Harris.

Harris, a 22-year-old sophomore free safety at East Los Angeles College, will be on our TV screens this Sunday in a commercial for Toyota
TM, +0.42%7203, -0.16%
. She is, among other things, the first female football player to be awarded a full scholarship in a nonspecialist position on defense.

Harris grew up in Detroit wanting to play football. Not a typical thing for a girl. Even more, she has a burning desire to someday play in the NFL.

She said all her life people would tell her to do something more “feminine,” but that didn’t stop her from chasing her dream.

“There was one situation in high school where I was already on the football team and the principal of my school told me I couldn’t play anymore,” Harris told MarketWatch. “So what did I do? I called the superintendent and was back on the team the next Monday. Nobody is going to stop me from achieving my dream.”

The TV spot is directed by Joe Pytka and features action shots of Toni intercepting a pass, and accepting her scholarship offer. Pytka has done more than 80 Super Bowl spots, as well as films, most notably directing “Space Jam” featuring another athlete of note, Michael Jordan.

“Toni is shattering perceptions,” said Ed Laukes, a Toyota marketing vice president, drawing a comparison to the company’s vehicles. “We are excited to remind viewers that assumptions should always be challenged.”

It’s an uplifting tale of how to beat the odds. While some may roll their eyes at yet another Super Bowl car commercial, this one will be worth watching. If nothing else, viewers will see Harris flatten a receiver coming across the middle of the field.

When asked what she’d be doing when the commercial airs Sunday, Harris said, “I’ll be with my friends, and they are going to film me to get my reaction. That will be pretty cool.”

While Harris seemed to be appreciative of playing collegiate football and happy that her story is getting out, her lack of satisfaction, too, is palpable. Not because she is disappointed, but because she isn’t done. She’s not just happy to be here; she has work yet to do.

Maybe a couple of years down the road you’ll see Toni Harris on screen on another Super Bowl Sunday — and not during a commercial break

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